I'm posting in here to get some advice.

Mike K

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and the amount you eat a day has to be 6-8 times, usually eat something about the size of your palm every couple hours, just make sure its not bad food.
This is just not true. Will it help? Maybe because it will allow your stomach to shrink but it's absolutely not necessary.

Likewise with the food. You can eat nothing but McDonalds fries and still lose weight. I lost 60+ lbs in 90 days by eating a reasonable lunch from Boston Market and for dinner: A Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich and large Chili.

The ONLY thing you need to hammer into your head right now is that you need to be taking in less calories than you burn in a day. If you do that you lose weight. If you don't you gain weight or maintain your current weight.

People ask for tips to lose weight and it's always the same stuff that comes up: don't eat out (bullshit), stop drinking sugary beverages, no sugar, eat many small meals. If I'm some fat dude who's eating out every day and people are telling me that to have any success I need to COMPLETELY change my eating habits, frankly I'm not going to bother and that's why I stayed fat for many years. Losing weight seemed like an insurmountable goal.

Is soda bad? Yeah. Is water better? Absolutely. Is fast food generally packed with sodium? Yup. Is it better to eat a bunch of small meals rather than a few large meals? Probably, yes. Is any of this absolutely necessary to losing weight? NO.

Start worrying about this stuff when you start losing weight and you have more motivation to research it yourself.

Figure out how many calories you burn in a day. There's a bunch of websites that will help you calculate this. Given your weight, I would imagine that you're burning a decent amount of calories even when you're sitting on your ass so you can probably easily shave 1000 off of that number and not suffer.

If you have an iPhone or any IOS device there's a great app called "Lose It" that lets you input a goal weight, goal date, your current weight, etc and it will figure out how many calories you can eat in a day to meet your goal. It also allows you to track your daily intake as well as exercise.

It's not hard. Truly, it's not. Don't make the mistake of seeing everyone's "you must do this" advice and getting disheartened. Right now calories are your only concern. Get that right and the weight will start falling off. Then you can start worrying about the rest.
 

1quick

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i just checked a bmr calculator with your stats and it said you should burn 3700 cal a day, so I would start by shooting for 3k a day that would put you at loseing about a pound and a half a week with out any exercize add some walking and what not and it will come off faster
 

slowchevy

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Sep 10, 2007
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You don't have to answer this, but are you on any sort of anti-depressant? I know some of those cause appetite increases and/or weight gain... If so, I've hear of it being paired with the ADHD drug helps to counteract the weight gain/appetite..

I dunno, Turk would though...
I honestly used to be on both.

Methylphenidate (Ritalin for ADHD) and bupropien(sp, basically wellbutrin.)

I don't take either any more because I want to learn how to better control myself without the aids of medication. I'm aware it's a chemical imbalance but I do pretty well most times, all considered.


Antipsychotic meds usually cause the large increase in weight.
I'm not on any, thanks though. :squint:
 

Turk

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Did you gain weight when you got off the Ritalin? I bet you did. I wasn't saying you were on anti psychotic meds, I was just saying that these are the meds that cause insane amounts of weight gain. Eric, I wish you the best of luck, it's going to be hard, and you're going to have to change the way you live your life. Once you get going though, you will be addicted. Do easy things first, diet pop, water, and start weight training. Lifting weights not only builds muscle but increases your metabolism a ton. You have to work on shrinking your stomach, right now your stomach thinks it's normal to take in very large amount of calories. Eventually you can train your stomach to feel satisfied with small amounts of food. If you don't change, you're going to live a life full of problems. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes are all in your future unless you make a drastic change now.
 

slowchevy

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I gained weight when I stopped riding my bikes when I got that neat thing called a license. :dunno: I stopped taking it all because it honestly made me feel like a zombie and not myself. Too dry , mind-wise. I was too serious about everything and no one wanted to be around me.. so I stopped taking the medications, became the infamous s00ls, started meeting girls, and actually had a social life for the first time in my entire life. That's why I'm reluctant to go back on. EVERYONE noticed a change when I tried taking them for a month straight or so earlier this year, and I didn't like it either. Don't know what to do about that. I feel like I can actually live when I don't take it.
 

Eagle

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Ok ok...

Dividing into more frequent smaller meals is a good idea to follow actually because it helps keep your metabolism running higher for more of the day. This concept is well known and proven. Over time, it'll also make it SO much easier to control portion size because (as mentioned) your stomach WILL shrink a bit, and eating huge meals just won't be appealing to you. More on the more frequent small meals here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/health/23really.html

What is key is changing what you're actually consuming. Eat more FRESH veggies and fruits. 100% kill soda off your intake, period.

Less calories isn't actually the best idea. You need a certain amount of caloric intake to support your day to day burn as well as some to cover your workouts (whatever those may be). A slight deficit is ok, but you don't want to get down under 1500 cals... its just not healthy until you're healthy enough to be in a cutting phase of your workout plan.

Finally, you need to actually WORK OUT to get your heart rate up and burn calories. Doing this over time brings your metabolism up and helps burn even when you're idle.

Watch biggest loser. Those folks sweat their asses off every workout and they are taught how to control their diet and that so many of the foods accepted today as "normal" (IE: fast food, junk food, stuff containing fructose corn syrup, etc) are complete crap and basically cause people to become over weight.
 

Eagle

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Did you gain weight when you got off the Ritalin? I bet you did. I wasn't saying you were on anti psychotic meds, I was just saying that these are the meds that cause insane amounts of weight gain. Eric, I wish you the best of luck, it's going to be hard, and you're going to have to change the way you live your life. Once you get going though, you will be addicted. Do easy things first, diet pop, water, and start weight training. Lifting weights not only builds muscle but increases your metabolism a ton. You have to work on shrinking your stomach, right now your stomach thinks it's normal to take in very large amount of calories. Eventually you can train your stomach to feel satisfied with small amounts of food. If you don't change, you're going to live a life full of problems. Hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes are all in your future unless you make a drastic change now.

yes yes yes :stupid:
 

willizm

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May 13, 2009
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I wish you the best of luck. You can turn things around and much like the guys are saying it's all done in steps, but eating more sensible and cutting out useless calories like pop is huge. You'd be surprised even though you've had the same dietary habits for years, when you change it to a more healthy lifestyle you will adapt. I use to drink tons of pop and hate water. Now pop tastes nasty to me and I prefer a crisp cold water any day. My heaviest after I stopped weighing myself was about 265 at 5'9". That was about 11 years ago and I've been able to keep it off and be healthy for a long time. It's all about attitude and you are taking the right steps now. Good luck to you!
 

Lead Pipe

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A few years ago I dropped like 50 lbs. or so. I'm trying to do that again but my discipline and dedication sucks. 3 things that really got me going was:
1. When you do 30 mins. of cardio, your body burns fat at an accelerated rate for 3 hours.
2. Don't eat any thing, not even a grape, after 7 p.m.
3. Cut fat intake to under 25g and carbs to around 100g.

I know a lot people might disagree with me but cycle a thermogenic fat burner supplement like Thermonix or Xenodrin. 3 weeks on, 1 week off. Drink at least 80 oz. of water daily and eat chicken and fish, no red meat.
 

Lead Pipe

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damn playa what if i'm hungry as hell after 7pm?

Drink water and go to bed. Your body burns a ton of calories while sleeping so if it you have an empty stomach it will burn stored fat. The key is eating within 30 mins. of waking up to jump start your metabolism so the first thing you eat doesn't go straight to fat storage.
 

The Broken Regal

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I lost 80lbs+ over the course of 12 months, but that was using quite strenuous regiment of exercise

Here is what I would suggest

Take a 30 min walk every day, don't BS me that you don't have time, its 1/2 hour out of a 24 hour day and I know you are up way past most peoples bedtimes. Don't go for a walk right before you go to bed or you won't be able to go to sleep!

I read somewhere that if you eat within 4 hours of going to bed that you gain at least a half pound a week, where in the same article I read that you lose that same 1/2 lb by not eating within 6 hours of going to bed. When I lost all my weight I ate dinner at 6-7pm and was in bed by 11 or later and didn't snack after that time frame. Don't cut out snacking late at night all together, you can give yourself a cheat day once a week to at least save your sanity.

Don't go cold turkey on pop, just make it a cheat day, I tried going off anything soda or sugar and I felt like complete shit for weeks on end. Just allowing myself to have a diet coke with lunch made everything better.

What fast food places do you frequently visit? Interested to make suggestions and portion size based on that because every place has something healthy, they just might not advertise it as well!
 

Theautoguy

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Nov 10, 2007
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Iā€™m 6ā€™4ā€ and 42; I was about 285 last March when I joined a gym. I made time before work to go. I actually leave the house in my workout clothes so I have to go to the gym to at least shower and change for work; once Iā€™m there I have to at least do cardio. This is a great way to force yourself to go to the gym regularly.

Cardio is easiest on your joints on an elliptical machine. I load good music on my iPod that I can keep a 130-150 strokes per minute pace with. When I started I couldnā€™t do 6 minutes at the easiest settings now I have to stop myself after 30 minutes at a much more aggressive setting so I can fit weight training in.

For weight training I isolate 4 sections, one for each day and do extended cardio for day 5. I keep it simple and only do about 3-4 exercises but repeat them 3-4 times each session. Since March I have doubled the weights I rep with.

I also started to monitor what I ate. Iā€™m not on any diet but I now get more low-fat sandwiches at Subway than burgers at McDā€™s. I snack on baked crackers rather than fried chips. I look at fat content and serving sizes when I go to the grocery store. Iā€™ve also discovered that you can make salads quickly and damn cheap that taste great with tuna or chicken breast. Again, Iā€™m not on a diet but I do watch what I eat plus I eat 5-6 small meals a day but practically nothing after 7pm.

In 6 months, I have dropped 25lbs, 3 inches in the waist, doubled my strength and now have amazing energy and confidence. I did this by setting 1 hour a day aside, 5 days a week and just pay attention to what I ate; no diets. (I still have junk food Fridays, today I will be eating me a McRib, fries and a nice big shake!)

What I discovered is that the hardest part was to get started. After two weeks I was hooked and donā€™t see myself stopping. I keep it fresh with new music and new friends at the gym. It really is easier than you thinkā€¦and no one is fat at the gym; if others think you are then theyā€™re empty headed ass-holes!

Oh yea, I also didnā€™t set goals to reach because I didnā€™t want to feel that I could slow down or stop once I got there. I am breaking old habits and forming new ones; that is what you will need to do. It takes time but it can be done.

I wish you luck. The end result is worth the work you put into it!
 

skeezer

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Jan 3, 2008
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I read somewhere that if you eat within 4 hours of going to bed that you gain at least a half pound a week, where in the same article I read that you lose that same 1/2 lb by not eating within 6 hours of going to bed. When I lost all my weight I ate dinner at 6-7pm and was in bed by 11 or later and didn't snack after that time frame.

If you're not doing any kind of exercise or activity this may help you lose weight, but probably not in a healthy way. This sounds like starving yourself more than anything. If this kid starts to exercise and actually work his muscles, then he will need something for his body to digest and use for fuel while he sleeps. Someone that is truly active and exercises will not gain fat by eating the right kind of foods at night.
 

divasixstar

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water doesn't really satisfy hunger though. and i'll be up to 11-2 usually the latter!

yeah, when i couldn't eat this past week, id be starving at night, so i'd get up and go for a walk/jog/run. and then watch a tv show and go straight to bed.

also, you have to allow yourself small cheats if you go all out on the dieting, or else you won't keep the dieting for long.. you'll go crazy and then binge. So plan out a cheat day like person up there has with the junk food fridays. as long as the rest of the days you're strict about calorie/fat intake, you can have a cheat day and still have great results.
 

10sec

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If you're not doing any kind of exercise or activity this may help you lose weight, but probably not in a healthy way. This sounds like starving yourself more than anything. If this kid starts to exercise and actually work his muscles, then he will need something for his body to digest and use for fuel while he sleeps. Someone that is truly active and exercises will not gain fat by eating the right kind of foods at night.

Exactly, the whole late eating thing is for people that don't get enough exercise. If you don't do shit all day, i wouldn't recommend eating 20min before you go to bed.
 
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